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List Description

This list is perhaps the most challenging of the well-known peakbagger's lists in the world. There are only 14 summits that rise above 8000 meters, every one of them projecting into the "death zone", where all humans rapidly degrade and eventually die without supplemental oxygen.

Ten of the 8000 meter peaks are in the Himalaya, and of those, nine (all but Nanga Parbat) are in Nepal, on its border, or very close. The other four 8000 meter peaks are clustered closely in the Karakoram Range (technically not part of the Himalaya).

The 8000 meter peaks were first climbed between 1950 (Annapurna) and 1964 (Shishma Pangma). The first to do all 14 was Reinhold Messner, completing on Lhotse in 1986. As of 2013, over thirty climbers have now joined this most exclusive of peakbagging clubs.